


Then and Now

by oj_lod



Series: Patton's Guide to Fatherhood [2]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), Thomas Sanders
Genre: Angst, Bullying, Fighting, Fluff, I don't want to filter through every phanfic ever written to get my sanders stuff, M/M, Patton is a good Dad, Sibling Bonding, also the way ao3 filters sanders sides stuff is very frustrating, ao3 i love you but no, but he's also like 10, deceit warning, eDIT:, family au, heads up kiddos this could be a little triggering, i mean: he's there and a dick, its all happy by the end, roman also learns how to stop insulting people when he apologizes, roman learns what it means to be a brother, roman no don't do that, so take that how you will, they changed it it's its own category now, violation of privacy, virgil gets bullied a bit, virgil learns to let go, yes ao3 my queeeeeeen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2018-04-23
Packaged: 2019-04-26 18:07:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14407590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oj_lod/pseuds/oj_lod
Summary: "A sibling represents a person's past, present, and future." -John Corey WhaleyRoman Sanders has always said there’s not a role in the world that he can’t play. In his eleven (and a half!) years, he has played everything from a royal prince to an elderly russian woman. He’s the undisputed star of the stage, and it makes him proud to know that his director and cast can rely on him for anything.And yet, he’s found his most current role...challenging, to say the least.orVirgil has issues opening up, Roman accidentally makes it worse, and together they attempt to understand exactly why.





	Then and Now

**Author's Note:**

> Woo! It's been a while but this series is back, baby! Shoutout to Kyelynn for the notebook suggestion, it aligned with what I was planning and worked well. I really enjoyed writing this, and I hope you enjoy it too!

Roman Sanders has always said there’s not a role in the world that he can’t play. In his eleven (and a half!) years, he has played everything from a royal prince to an elderly russian woman. He’s the undisputed star of the stage, and it makes him proud to know that his director and cast can rely on him for anything.  
And yet, he’s found his most current role...challenging, to say the least.  
_“Listen here, Snow Blight ”_  
_“No.”_  
_“I said I was sorry!”_  
_“Leave me alone.”_  
Despite his best efforts, he’s not sure how to go about this whole “big brother” thing.  
Patton gives him a concerned glance as he slinks into the living room and plops himself on the couch.  
“Everything okay, kiddo?” Roman shakes his head. His dad, fortunately, doesn’t press. Roman is usually vocal about his problems, and true to his personality, it only takes a few minutes of pouting for him to begin babbling his complaints.  
“I’m a terrible brother.” Patton looks at him in confusion.  
“What? No, sweetheart, what do you mean?” Roman shrugs.  
“Virgil doesn’t like me.”  
“Did you two get into a fight?”  
“Sort of.” He takes a deep breath, cursing how shaky it is. “I just annoyed him, I guess, and he yelled at me.”  
“Hmm, that doesn’t sound very like Verge now, does it?” Patton gives him a gentle look. “Roman, why did he react like that?” Roman blushes slightly, caught.  
“I might’ve gone into his room when he wasn't there, without permission.”  
“Roman.”  
“I know, I know!” Roman defends quickly. “It’s just, he never tells me anything, and he never wants to play, and I just want to know why he doesn’t trust me!” The hypocrisy of his statement seems to be lost on him. Patton sighs, attempting to find words that are both comforting and reprimanding.  
“Virgil has had a tough time opening up to people in the past. He’ll tell you what you want to know in time, but you can’t rush it like that.”  
“But...he tells you everything! And he gets along with Pop better than anyone. And he made friends with Elliot right away! What if it’s just me?” Roman whimpers slightly, though he tries valiantly to mask it. “H-he probably despises me now, because I went in his room! Dad, what do I do?” He flings himself over Patton, who squeezes him tightly.  
“Shhh, shh, Roman, it’s okay. It’s okay, kiddo.” Roman wipes his eyes fiercely.  
“I’m such a bad brother.”  
“No, you’re not.” Patton gently wipes the tears away. “You made a mistake, and you should go apologize to Virgil. He’ll forgive you.” Roman doesn’t entirely believe the words, but they’re comforting all the same.  
“Okay.” He gets up and begins to head to Virgil’s room.  
“Ro?”  
“Yeah?”  
“I love you.” He smiles shakily.  
“I love you too, Dad.” He takes another deep breath and pads down the hall. He can faintly hear music coming from Virgil’s room. Well, that’s a decent sign. When Virgil gets really angry, he just plays it through his headphones with the door barricaded. He can do this. Roman gathers every ounce of courage he has and knocks on the door.  
“Who is it?”  
“Roman.” There’s a pause.  
“Go away.”  
“Look, Verge, I’m just here to apologize.”  
“What do you want?”  
“Can I come in?” The music shuts off.  
“Fine. The door’s unlocked.” Roman knows this, Pop has a thing about locked doors, but it makes him glad he knocked despite that. He enters the room as confidently as he can manage. Virgil is sitting cross-legged on a bright purple beanbag, scowling at him. “Make it quick.” Roman breathes deeply.  
“I’m sorry.” Virgil raises an eyebrow.  
“You said that, yeah.”  
“I mean it! I shouldn’t have looked through your stuff. It’s just that you’re such a shut-in--I mean, you’re so angsty--you know what, I’m not very good at apologizing.”  
‘No kidding.” Roman takes a frustrated breath.  
“What I mean is that I care about you a lot, Virge, and not being able to know anything about you hurts me. That doesn’t make it okay, but I want you to know that that’s why.” Virgil looks at him in mild disbelief.  
“You know lots about me.”  
“I do?”  
“What animal do we both like?”  
“Dragons.”  
“What’s my favorite color?”  
“You say it’s black but it’s actually purple.” The corner of Virgil’s mouth flickers up.  
“What’s something Dad doesn’t know about me?” Roman snorts.  
“That the one batch of cookies turned out weird because you swapped the sugar for salt because I put sugar on my cereal and you wanted to prank me.” Virgil smirks, but then quickly catches himself.  
“So yeah, you know all that stuff about me. Why do you care, anyway? The other stuff isn’t important.”  
“I don’t really care about your past and stuff, we were both orphans, I get that. I just want to know why you won’t tell me.”  
“I think you kind of answered your own question there.”  
“No, I mean, you tell Dad and Pop, and even Elliot! Why am I, your brother, not worth explaining to?” Virgil blinks.  
“That’s what you’re all upset about?” Roman is taken aback.  
“I mean, yes.” Virgil huffs.  
“Look, Dad and Pop already know all the tragic backstory stuff because they filled out the adoption papers. And I met Elliot at Uncle Emile’s office, so we both have a lot going on. It’s easy to talk to them about that sort of stuff. But I don’t wanna get caught up in it, y’know?” Virgil scuffs his sock against the floor. “Uncle Emile says the best way to move on is stop defining myself by my past.” He rolls his eyes. “I’m not telling you stuff about my old life because I want you to be a part of this one, stupid.” Roman gasps, a touch overdramatically.  
“You mean it?”  
“Yeah, whatever!” Roman’s face splits in a huge grin, and Virgil cracks a smile in spite of himself. “But one thing?”  
“Yeah?”  
“If you go through my stuff one more time, I will kill you, Princey.” Roman whines.  
“I’m really sorry!”  
“I know, that’s why I’m not strangling you right now. Get out of my room before I change my mind.” His voice dances the line between joking and completely serious, so Roman scurries back to the door.  
“Okay! Bye Virgil.”  
“Later.”  
By dinner, the two have returned to their normal banter. Patton exchanges a knowing glance with Logan.  
“Roman’s getting better at these things.” Logan nods.  
“Thanks to you.” Patton shakes his head, smiling at his plate of spaghetti.  
“No. Thanks to Virgil.” 

\----------  
Roman walks out of class feeling pretty good. His English teacher is also his director, and he managed to get her onto a tangent about Shakespeare, which means he bought some extra time for his grammar test. All in all, a good class.  
His good mood comes to a shrieking halt when he hears the telltale sound of a kid being shoved against the chain link fence. He sighs and turns around to face the group of elementary schoolers on the other side of said fence. It’s not that their school is lenient about bullying or anything, but mean kids always find a way to be mean. He’s about to intervene when the victim staggers a little, and mumbles,  
“Leave me alone.”  
_Ohhhhhhhh no._  
Verge is on the ground by the time he hops the fence and comes face to face with his tormentors, absolutely fuming.  
“Leave my brother alone.” The bullies look up, surprised. Roman’s not much older or taller than them, but he draws on every centimeter to try and tower over them. “He’s not doing anything to you.” One boy, seemingly the leader, chuckles slightly.  
“Aw, come on, we’re not hurting him.”  
“You pushed him into the fence.”  
“What? I didn’t push him, he just fell into the fence!” The other two nod in agreement.  
“I saw you push him.” The bully shrugs, holding up his hands. Roman notices that he’s clutching Virgil’s notebook between his yellow-gloved fingers. “Hey, give that back!”  
“We were just looking.”  
“Give it back.” The kid smirks.  
“What’re you gonna do, tell your dad?” Roman takes a step forward.  
“I don’t need Pop to fight a battle for me. I’ll do it myself.”  
“Roman, it’s okay.” Virgil is on his feet again, grass-stained but otherwise unharmed.  
“No, Virgil. Let me defend your honor!” Virgil groans.  
“Oh my god, Roman, let it go. We can report it or something, you’re gonna get in trouble.” He tugs insistently on the other’s sleeve. Roman grumbles, eventually relenting. As much as he’d like to hit those bullies, Virgil is right.  
“Fine, but you’re coming with me. I don’t want them messing with you as soon as I turn my back.”  
“Ugh, okay.” Virgil walks over and snatches his notebook from the kid in the yellow gloves, momentarily distracted by Roman’s threat. “You look like Bill Cipher, by the way.” The kid blinks, and Virgil hops the fence smoothly. Roman barely suppresses a squeal.  
“Verge that was such a cool exit!” Virgil snorts.  
“You’re so extra.”  
“Extra? ME?” Roman demands, putting as much drama into it, making sure he gets Virgil giggling. “But seriously, are you alright?” Virgil shrugs.  
“I’m fine.”  
“What happened with those guys?”  
“They came up behind me and started saying stuff like ‘nobody likes you’” Roman scoffs.  
“That’s both unbelievably cruel and untrue.”  
“I guess. Then I tried to just walk away but they followed me, then grabbed my notebook and pushed me when I tried to get it back. It’s probably just because I’m new and quiet, but it sucked.”  
“I should’ve shish-kabobed them with a sword.” They sit down on the steps leading back inside the middle school.  
“That wouldn’t have solved anything.” Roman huffs.  
“I know, but we have to do something.” Virgil looks at him.  
“Do what? Tell Pop? I don’t wanna do that, he’ll freak out.”  
“No, we’ll tell one of your teachers. But, if it happens again, I am going to tell Pop, and Dad, too. What you were saying about a new life and stuff? You have to share the hard things, too.”  
“That was surprisingly wise, for you.”  
“Hey!” Virgil sticks his tongue out. After a moment of silence, he looks at the ground.  
“It was cool of you to stand up for me. You’re a really good brother.” Roman feels a smile spreading across his face, and doesn’t make the slightest attempt to stop it, especially after Virgil begins to smile just as brightly.  
“You’re a good brother, too.”


End file.
